Vanare,
the wealth management technology platform with a white-labeled roboadviser, and
FinMason, a financial education firm focused on investment risk, have partnered
to help advisers educate investors about the importance of risk while
demonstrating the merits of a professionally managed portfolio.

The
integration gives advisers rigorous institutional capabilities to easily
analyze risk across a multitude of investment types, delivered in a modern, web
experience by advisers to clients, the firms say.

The
integration will further enhance the data aggregation offering Vanare recently
launched with advisers, which allows clients to see the value of all their
assets and liabilities within a roboadviser or client portal offering.

“Platforms
with such high-level analytical data have typically been reserved exclusively
for institutional investors, are often prohibitively expensive and are rarely
accessible to advisers and their clients. Our partnership with Vanare changes
that fundamentally,” says Mark Hollingsworth, FinMason’s head of Advisor
Solutions. “From the other side, recent mobile apps and user-friendly
websites allow individual users to access a variety of financial assets, but
they fail to provide meaningful analytical measures of investments with our
level of rigor.”

“Advisers
tell us how important it is for them to quickly communicate their value
proposition to all types of investors,” says Vanare CEO, Rich Cancro.
“Together with FinMason, we are offering the tools needed to demonstrate
complex portfolio analytics at any level of sophistication in real-time. From
an operations and compliance point of view, we also help firms incorporate
ongoing risk assessment across an entire business to ensure proper portfolio
alignment for each client; which is essential as the new Department of Labor
fiduciary rule is implemented in 2017.”

"The
challenge associated with selecting a target-date suite has increased
significantly in recent years, as the number of products, and the differences
between them, have grown. Today, John Hancock offers nine suites from a range
of investment managers including John Hancock, American Funds, T. Rowe Price,
Vanguard, BlackRock, American Century and JP Morgan. John Hancock recordkeeping
costs are completely independent of the investments selected, ensuring that the
selection of a particular suite is driven by how well its design and risk/return
characteristics align with the needs of plan participants. We wanted to provide
advisers with an interactive tool to assist with this analysis, particularly in
light of the recent expansion of our target-date lineup," says Patrick
Murphy, president, John Hancock Retirement Plan Services.

JH
Target Date PathFinder was designed to support both those who would like
assistance navigating through the investment options with the inclusion of
interactive questions, and those who quickly want to delve into the data.

The
new website combines interactive glide path functionality with quantitative
data and a customized summary report that documents the evaluation process. The
report which was developed to align closely with the Department of Labor's
"Target Date Fund – Tips for ERISA Plan Fiduciaries" can then be
shared with the plan sponsor to support them with their fiduciary duties.

Charles
Schwab announced a number of new features and enhancements to Institutional
Intelligent Portfolios—the automated investment management platform designed
specifically for independent advisers and sponsored by Schwab Wealth Investment
Advisory, Inc.

The
primary update is enhanced portfolio customization, which launches next month
and will provide advisers greater flexibility to design portfolios based on
their investment philosophies. Other enhancements include new account funding
options, and ways for firms to manage multiple Institutional Intelligent
Portfolios programs. In early 2017, Schwab will also roll out an updated
client-user app for smartphones and tablets that will enhance navigation and
deliver a more intuitive user experience.

“Automated
investment management continues to be an important and evolving trend in our
industry. Our research shows that advisers are optimistic that this technology
can help scale their businesses and allow them to stay competitive in the
marketplace,” says Jessica Heffron, vice president, client experience, Schwab
Advisor Services. “Most advisers tell us that the biggest opportunity for
automated investing tools is to more efficiently serve smaller accounts or
reach clients that their firms have been unable to serve before.”

Features
of Institutional Intelligent Portfolios include:

Enhanced
portfolio customization. Schwab now offers more than 950 exchange-traded funds
(ETFs) on the Institutional Intelligent Portfolios platform—more than double
the number of ETFs that were available at launch last year. Starting next
month, all advisers will be able to create up to 45 adviser-defined asset
classes in each portfolio and offer multiple ETFs in each asset class.

Multiple-program.
Firms can now offer separate programs at the adviser level or establish
programs to target specific client segments.

New
account funding options. Advisers now have more account funding options, in
addition to cash, and can journal transfer of asset positions.

Easier
account open for clients. Enhancements to the account opening process make
account open faster and more flexible.

Client
interface enhancements. In early 2017, Schwab will roll out a new Institutional
Intelligent Portfolios app for both smart phones and tablets. The app will
continue to be adviser-branded and will now include streamlined navigation and
an improved client interface.

NEXT: SSGA Launches New ESG Strategies

SSGA Launches New ESG
Strategies

State
Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset management business of State Street
Corporation, announced that the SPDR MSCI EAFE Fossil Fuel Reserves Free ETF
(EFAX) and the SPDR MSCI Emerging Markets Fossil Fuel Reserves Free ETF (EEMX)
began trading on the NYSE Arca.

Developed
to address growing client demand for environmental, social and governance (ESG)
strategies and help investors divest from companies owning fossil fuel reserves
while maintaining the benefits of core exposures to key benchmarks, the newest
additions to SSGA’s ESG line-up are the first MSCI EAFE and Emerging Markets ex
Fossil Fuel Reserves Free ETFs, the firm contends.

The
SPDR MSCI EAFE Fossil Fuel Reserves Free ETF (EFAX) seeks to track the MSCI
EAFE ex Fossil Fuels Index. The Index is designed to measure the performance of
companies in the MSCI EAFE Index that do not own fossil fuel reserves. Fossil
fuel reserves are defined as economically and technically recoverable sources
of crude oil, natural gas and thermal coal but do not include metallurgical or
coking coal, which are used in connection with steel production.

The
SPDR MSCI Emerging Markets Fossil Fuel Reserves Free ETF (EEMX) seeks to track
the MSCI Emerging Markets ex Fossil Fuels Index. The Index is designed to
measure the performance of companies in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index that do
not own fossil fuel reserves, as defined above.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index captures large and mid-capitalization
representation across 23 emerging market countries.

The
gross expense ratio for EFAX is 0.30% and the net expense ratio is 0.20%. The
gross and net expense ratio for EEMX is 0.30%.

“With
governments across the world committed to addressing climate change, investors
have been increasingly looking to minimize the potential negative impact that
exposure to companies owning fossil fuel reserves could have on their
portfolios as traditional market-cap based passive strategies that do not
screen out certain industries or business practices may not account for this
risk,” says Christopher McKnett, managing director and head of ESG at State
Street Global Advisors. “SSGA has managed ESG portfolios for 30 years and with
client demand for these strategies higher than it’s ever been, this suite of SPDR
funds is designed to provide investors with passively managed tools to divest
from companies owning fossil fuel reserves while maintaining exposure to core
US, international and emerging markets benchmarks.”

NEXT: Millennium Trust Expands Fund Custody
Solution

Millennium Trust
Expands Fund Custody Solution

Millennium
Trust Company, a provider of custody solutions for institutions, advisers, and
individuals, has expanded the offering of its Fund Custody Solution to include
custody for registered investment companies ('40 Act Funds) as well as
verification services.

"Millennium's
Fund Custody solution was created in late 2010 to address advisers' need to
comply with the SEC Custody Rule 206(4)-2, and to create much-needed
transparency for the end investor," says Gary Anetsberger, CEO of
Millennium Trust. "The services quickly attracted adviser-controlled funds
investing in alternative assets such as marketplace loans, private equity,
hedge funds as well as traditional assets.”

Millennium's Fund
Custody expanded its services to support funds leveraging their loan portfolios
by providing verification and certification services required by the funds'
credit facilities. "This new service offers the ease of having custody and
verification services with one service provider," notes Meg Zwick,
Millennium Trust's director of Alternative Custody Services. In addition,
Millennium expanded its services to include providing custody for '40 Act
Funds. Assets under custody within the fund custody division surpassed $10.8 billion
as of September 30.